Father Benedict Groeschel Claims Some Sexually Abused Children Seduce Priests

Father Benedict Groeschel, of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewa, recently told the National Catholic Register that some teen victims of sexual abuse actually seduce some priests.

Groeschel said: "People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to [be] a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster, 14, 16, 18, is the seducer."

"If you go back 10 or 15 years ago with different sexual difficulties, except for rape or violence, it was very rarely brought as a civil crime. Nobody thought of it that way... And I’m inclined to think, on [a priest's] first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime."

Father Groeschel did not present any proof that states did not enforce sexual abuse crimes between men and boys in the last 10 or 15 years.

Father Groeschel lives in Larchment, N.Y., where he assists with Trinity Retreat, where priests, accused of sexual abuse, stay, if not convicted of a crime.